"It's been very cool. My audience from 'Wait Wait' has been growing, and more and more when I do live shows, there are people who have heard me on NPR. But the difference being that in a club, I'm uncensored, and I can say anything and go into more topics I want to talk about," he said.

"I gotta be clean on NPR, and when they asked about using power tools ['According to the Wall Street Journal, a lot of power tools - jigsaws, power sanders, reciprocating saws - are being sold to professionals who use them to do what?'], well, that's a different joke at night than it is in the afternoon."

The answer, by the way, is "massages."

What Bodden wants to talk about most onstage is life and sports and race and politics. Lots of politics.

He's decidedly anti-Trump and concerned about the police shootings of black men.

"You can't make police murdering black men funny. It rips your heart out, and the problem is, people on the right don't see these people as human. There's no way to reach that," he said.

"What I can make funny is this inane fear that people have, like, just the fact that I'm a large black man means you're scared to death of me when I walk into the room. And the fact that I have superpowers. I don't know if you are aware of this, but all large black men have super strength.

"We're all Luke Cage when eight cops tackle us, you know. So that's the kind of thing I can make fun of.

"And let's not even give the trial date anymore, let's just give the acquittal date. Say the cop killed him on June 19, 2017? The acquittal will be Nov. 25," he said. "I'm not going to go onstage and preach and say all cops or bad, because that's just not true. But the system is horribly broken."

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a silent auction, followed by a live auction and, at 6:45, the comedy show. Contact the Hilarities box office if you are interested in helping the Ronald McDonald House and enjoying comedy.

At the Improv: Steve Trevino headlines the Cleveland Improv at 7 p.m. Thursday ($17), 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday (all $20). The Improv is at 1148 Main Ave., next to Shooters on the west bank of Cleveland's Flats. Call 216-696-4677.